


Guardian Angel

by CrypticNotCoy (Reveles)



Series: Outsider POV [28]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Adoption, F/M, Guardian Angel Max Lightwood, M/M, POV Max, POV Outsider, Spoilers for Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy: Born to Endless Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reveles/pseuds/CrypticNotCoy
Summary: "When Max Lightwood had died, he had no idea that he would become someone's guardian angel. After all, he was only nine, he was way more concerned with reading comics and preparing for the shadowhunter training he never got to have. But life, and ergo death, work in strange ways"
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Max Lightwood, Magnus Bane & Max Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Max Lightwood & Max Lightwood-Bane
Series: Outsider POV [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933177
Comments: 12
Kudos: 184





	Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> This was another fic borne from my re-reading of 'Born To Endless Night' as well as the fact that some of you said you wanted to see more of Max Lightwood. I hope you like it!

When Max Lightwood had died, he had no idea that he would become someone's guardian angel. After all, he was only nine, he was way more concerned with reading comics and preparing for the shadowhunter training he never got to have. But life, and ergo death, work in strange ways.

Max's first assignment was a mundane girl who had died from Leukaemia when she was only two years old. Her death, though it was predetermined by fate, made Max vow to protect his next charge even better then the first.

He was naturally quite surprised to learn that his next charge was to be a warlock, normally they were only given to the older guardians, due to their long lifespan and penchant for attracting danger, especially early in life.

"Why me?" asked Max, as he was given the warlock's file. Every guardian angel was given a file, with the basic details of the first few decades (an entire mundane lifespan) of their charge's life, if they were destined to live that long that is.

"Because, you have family ties," Will answered simply. Of all of the other guardian angels, Will was Max's favourite, he had once been a shadowhunter like Max, however he had died of old age instead of having been killed as Max was.

"To a warlock?" Max asked, he was confused, how could he have family ties to a warlock?

Will shrugged, "Don't ask me how, all the file says is that the kid will be left on the steps of the Shadowhunter Academy when he's about eight months old. Perhaps that's how, or maybe he's going to marry one of your sibling's descendants later in life,"

"I guess I'll just have to find out," Max replied, starting to flick through the file, taking in information such as name, warlock marks and parents, as well as personality. After he was sure he had enough of the information, Max handed the file back to Will. "I like this kid already," he said

"Yeah, I guess I'll see you in an indefinite amount of time then," Will laughed

"I guess so," Max said, spreading his feathery wings. He only had a few moments before the child's birth as guardian angels were assigned quite fast and with short notice (no one really knows why).

"Good luck kiddo," Will replied, waving as Max took off.

A few moments of flying later, Max found himself in a dimly lit bathroom as a young mundane woman gave birth to a blue skinned warlock baby. She gave him a name, though Max never really took it in, even then he knew it wouldn't stick.

Over the next few months, the mundane woman became increasingly involved in the shadoworld, trying to find someone who could 'cure' her child. Max knew that she held some love for the baby, however, that love was drowned out by her despair at what had been done to her by the demon. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore, she was about to kill the child, by drowning him in the bathtub, when Max intervened.

"Don't do this, someone can love him," he whispered to the woman, knowing that she could hear him as if he was a fragment of her conscience.

"Who?" she breathed, "Who could ever love it?"

"Someone can, someone will. That person is not you though," Max replied as the baby's piercing cries broke out, filling the tiny apartment as his mother, in only the sense that she birthed him, held him above the water with trembling hands.

"What do I do?" she asked, thinking that she was speaking only to thin air. Max saw a small flicker of light on her shoulder and knew that her own angel was placing a comforting hand there. Though Max could not see the other angel, as angels could not see each other when they were on Earth, he knew that they did not want their charge to become a killer.

"Take him to the Shadowhunter Academy," Max answered and he saw the woman's face brighten in hope, diming the terrible resignation that had been in her eyes moments before.

"Of course! Of course!" she exclaimed, standing up in a hurry. Max watched as she bustled around the dingy apartment, organising favours and ways to get to Idris. Eventually, a warlock agreed to portal her there and back for a hefty sum that she could only just afford.

Max smiled as the winds of Idris ruffled his wings, watched as the woman walked away from the Academy, a new spring in her step. Two souls would be freed today, her, from the horrible burden that had been placed on her without her consent, and the child, from the doom of a parent with murderous intent. Max had seen in the boy's file that he was to be adopted, though he did not know by who. Even if he was taken in by the Clave, Max knew he would at least survive, after all, he remembered the story of a warlock who had been raised by the Silent Brothers sometime in the sixteen-hundreds.

It was around an hour before anyone found the baby, with a group of two shadowhunters and two ascendant trainees stumbling upon him. Max watched in amusement as they fought over who should hold the baby, with one of them, Simon, Max remembered from when he had seen him in the Institute, offering to go and get someone to deal with the child.

Soon, Simon returned with a tall man in tow, judging from his slit pupiled eyes, Max assumed he was a warlock. Actually, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, Magnus Bane. Max remembered seeing him around the Institute while Max was still alive. He looked exactly the same as he had then, though his hair was a lot more messy and his clothes looked as if they had been hastily pulled on. Magnus took the baby, looking at him with a mix of sadness and unsurety. He and Simon spoke as a crowd gathered around them, all craning their necks to see the blue baby.

Just as one of the ascendant boys was offering to raise the child in his sock draw with Simon, a figure weaving through the crowd caught Max's eye. It was Alec, looking a little older than when Max had last seen him, but largely unchanged. His blue eyes were fixed on Magnus with a sort of determination Max had only ever seen in Alec's eyes when he was protecting his siblings. Max didn't know who Magnus was to Alec yet, but he was sure it was someone important.

This suspicion was confirmed when Alec reached Magnus and the child and held Magnus's arm in a comforting gesture that had the warlock relaxing immediately. After a moment, Alec asked to hold the baby, and as soon as he was in Alec's arms, the baby ceased his crying.

A debate began about weather to hand the baby over to the Clave, though it was quickly shut down by Magnus.

"I do not intend to leave a warlock child to the tender mercies of the Clave," Magnus said, a steely tone evident in his voice, "We have this, don't we, Alec?"

"Yeah, we do," Alec replied, his tone matching Magnus's.

Max watched with interest over the next parts of the day, the two men trying to take care of a child despite their almost comic inexperience. Eventually, the child fell asleep and Max sat down by his crib, watching as Alec flopped down on the already messy bed with exhaustion and Magnus declared that he was going for a walk to get some fresh air. If the last few hours were anything to go by, Magnus and Alec were definitely together, even without the quick kiss Magnus gave Alec before he left, there was something so familiar about the way they oriented themselves to each other that made it infinitely obvious to Max. 

Perhaps this was what Will meant about Max having family connections to the warlock baby, perhaps his brother and his boyfriend were going to be the ones to adopt this lost child. Max certainly hoped so, he was desperate to see his family again, even if it could only ever be from the perspective of a guardian angel.

Max was only half surprised when the entirety of his family noisily barged into the suite, waking up both Alec and the baby, the former of which just glared accusingly as he went to pick up the latter. Sniggering, Max watched as Jace and Clary attempted to baby proof the suite, Izzy got up on a stool for some reason (to scout for places that needed pieces of torn up shirt shoved in them most likely) and his mother waved around a bottle while his father kept trying to take the child from Alec. It was this kind of family chaos that Max truly missed, the undeniable stupidity of his entire family.

Eventually, the chaos was interrupted when Magnus returned with a vampire woman who made a beeline for Alec and began demanding him for help with one of her clan members. Max was not in the least bit surprised that Alec was the one she went to for help, after all, his big brother had always been dependable. Shifting his gaze from where the vampire was telling Alec something about 'Youtube' and 'boring erotic dances', Max looked over to where Magnus was glaring at Izzy for ripping up his shirts. Max wasn't sure what is was, but something about the glare as well as Izzy's nonchalant shrug cemented in his mind the fact that Magnus was now part of his family.

Later on in the night, Max overheard a conversation between Magnus and his father. His father was saying something about possible names for the baby, he wanted to call him Max. The gesture made Max smile, even though he was no longer there his family still thought about him, and they wanted to name a child in his memory.

Once the Lightwoods had finally left, Max had the pleasure of observing his brother and his boyfriend once again. He watched as the two decided to keep the child, to raise him as their own, together. But a moment in the conversation caught him off guard, when Alec mentioned all of the ways he thought he had failed Max, how he thought that Max thought he was boring, how he never got to tell his little brother about his sexuality, and how he was afraid of failing the child, of not being good enough for him. Max couldn't resist wrapping his older brother in a hug, even though Alec couldn't feel it.

"It's okay big brother," he whispered, "I still love you, always will. And you two are going to be amazing parents,"

He wasn't sure if Alec heard him, but Max hoped that he could. It was like Magnus said, Alec tried too hard to be everything for everyone that he never realised he was already more than enough.

Max was about to let his attention drift away from the couple and back to the baby (Max Junior!) when he overheard something that recaptured his attention.

"I guess I never thought anything like this would happen before we got married," Alec said, and Max could see Magnus freeze.

"What?" Magnus asked and Max felt dread creep into his stomach, was Magnus about to say that he didn't want to marry Alec? "Alec, my Alec. You have to know that's impossible," Max felt a rage rise up in him, before he heard Magnus stumble through all of his reasons that he didn't want to marry Alec, not yet any way, not until they could get married in gold. At Magnus's reasoning, Max's anger shifted, redirected towards the narrow minded Clave that prevented his brother from marrying the man he loves in gold. After hearing Magnus's promise that his answer was yes, one day, Max smiled and returned his attention to the small baby with his namesake.

The next night, after witnessing a reconciliation between Alec and Simon that left Max with a lot of questions about what happened after his death (and what 'walking in' on someone was). Max watched as his family as well as their newfound friends gathered in the suite for a celebration, and to introduce to them Max Lightwood-Bane, the very person who Max would watch over for all of his years (and who would cause quite a lot of trouble for Max in that time as well). But, despite all of the exploding potions and demon attacks Max would end up protecting his namesake from, he was eternally grateful that he got to see his family live the lives they always deserved (and if he got teary eyed at all of his sibling's weddings, then no one had to know).

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this!!! As always, feedback, comments and kudos are adored (but you don't have too)! Until next time!  
> ~CrypticNotCoy


End file.
